126 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



Other, and the caterpillars are dissimilar. The caterpillars live 

 under very opposite circumstances, they like dififerent plants, 

 and they have their feet specially constructed to enable them 

 to crawl over particular leaves, and one kind would find itself 

 very much out of its place should it attempt to lead the life 

 of others. No group, so far as the caterpillars are concerned, 

 shows greater evidences of design, and offers proofs of the 

 special adaptation of structures to particular ends. In con- 

 sidering how all this bears upon the Darwinian theory, it 

 must be remembered that the moth is the perfect animal, and 

 that the caterpillars and chrysalides are being developed into 

 the perfect form, and that they are undergoing evolution. It 

 is not logical to argue upon the data afforded by the structures 

 of the immature insect, because, during the early conditions of 

 all animals, there are developments going on which cannot be 

 divided naturally into steps or stages for the sake of argument. 

 The details of the organisation of the adult and perfect forms 

 afford the only satisfactory data for comparison, and it is 

 evident that in the instances before us the variability is cut 

 short at the end of caterpillar life, and that Nature asserts her 

 love of persistence of form in reproducing identical moths from 

 different larvae. 



The Nochiina have" a stout body, and generally speaking 

 narrow fore wings, under which the hind wings are folded in 

 repose ; the insect thus looks much smaller than it does when 

 the wings are all expanded. Mr. Stainton mentions that when 

 he first saw the common " yellow under wing" he thought it a 

 dull, reddish-brown inconspicuous thing ; he was surprised to 

 see it grow to three times its previous size, as it displayed its 

 yellow under wings. The Nochdna are generally small ; they 

 have a moderately long trunk, and projecting palps, and the 

 antennae which are thread -shaped, are either simple or finely 

 denticulated. The moths, unlike those we have just noticed 

 amongst the Bombycina, take nourishment, and are very fond 

 of sugar, and they have, therefore, a moderately long sucker 

 The caterpillars are usually without any hair. 



Naturalists have divided the Noctuina into two main groups, 

 the TrifidcB and the Quadrifidcz. In th-e Trifidce the moth is 



